Exploring social workers perspectives on innovative strategies for enhancing social work profession through artificial intelligence
- Author
- Dube, Kundai
- Title
- Exploring social workers perspectives on innovative strategies for enhancing social work profession through artificial intelligence
- Abstract
- This study aims at exploring social workers perspectives on innovative strategies for enhancing social work education through artificial intelligence. It is an overview of how social workers perceive artificial intelligence in enhancing the profession. Various innovative strategies have been brought forward in the research which includes assistance of students in crisis, interprofessional education, skills development and technology based learning to mention a few. These are some of the ways in which the researcher proffered forward in a bid to enhance social work education through artificial intelligence. The general assumption is that the world is entering into a more digital era where artificial intelligence will be an anchor for most fields, thus, it will be useful in different fields to aid different professions to accomplish their goals. The researcher makes use of the explanatory research design, the explanatory research design was created to study a phenomenon that has not been fully explored or described before. This research design will be used to give and come with a different angle on the various ways in which artificial intelligence can be of significance to the social work education. Purposive sampling technique was used during the research study, it was used due to various purposes. These may include that participants who were chosen are not just chosen at random, but rather for a purpose, students from Information Technology and Software engineering were chosen for the purpose that they are more vested and have a better appreciation and understanding of Artificial intelligence, which can help social work education. The sample size was (15), comprising of 14 students and a single facilitator. In light of tools, the researcher used in depth interviews, key informant interviews and focus groups during data collection. After data collection, the researcher managed to have a better clarity and understanding of the challenges which AI still presents to students, the ways to address them and recommendations for future research. Some of the challenges which students faced include the lack of understanding and appreciation of AI, which resulted in them resorting to the copy and paste technique which eventually led to plagiarism. The researcher also observed that AI has somehow promoted laziness within students, they no longer resort to the traditional learning notion of reading textbooks for information , they resort to simply search and just have a tip of the iceberg of a specific phenomenon which they seek to study. AI is more of a guide, not something that should be fully depended on, it’s safe to say it promotes a dependency syndrome. The researcher recommended the balanced approach, which explains that AI and the traditional learning methods complement each other, the idea is that AI is not there to replace the traditional learning methods but rather to compliment it and enhance it further.
- Date
- June 2025
- Publisher
- BUSE
- Keywords
- Artificial Intelligence
- Social Work Profession
- Supervisor
- Ms. Gambiza
- Item sets
- Department of Social Work
- Media
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Dube, Kundai.pdf